Valve Giving Away Developer Edition of Vive VR Headset for Free

Valve recently entered the heated virtual reality space with its Vive headset, made in cooperation with HTC. But as reported by Ars Technica, Valve is taking a different approach with development kits than competitor Oculus VR: they're giving them away for free.

Valve's Doug Lombardi says the company has already provided Vive VR headsets to a few developers, including Surgeon Simulator creators Bossa Studios and The Room developer Fireproof Games.

Exit Theatre Mode

"More info and sign up forms will be available to all interested developers, big or small, via a new site coming soon," said Lombardi. Apparently, the sign-up site could be live as early as next week.

But while Valve is handing out Vive hardware gratis, it's not immediately clear how many developers will actually get a free headset. One thing is for sure, though: the move will likely spur plenty of attention from developers interested in VR, at a time when the Oculus Rift development kit still costs around $350 USD.